This year, the Nobel Committee highlighted an area of research central to the research projects of the experts at the reConnect Institute: optogenetics. The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel for their discoveries that laid the foundation for optogenetics and certain light-activated ion channels.
At the reConnect Institute, optogenetics is the focus of research projects aimed at opening up new avenues for restoring hearing. The “Neural Code in the Auditory System” team at theHearing Institute, led by Jérémie Barral, uses optogenetics to precisely stimulate cells in the cochlea using light.
This work was made possible in part by support from the Bettencourt Foundation for Young Researchers and is part of an effort to develop an optogenetic cochlear implant.
Optogenetics is a method that allows the activity of nerve cells to be controlled using light. The research conducted by Jérémie Barral’s team focuses on the benefits of this technique when applied specifically to the hair cells of the cochlea. Unlike current cochlear implants, which use electrodes to directly stimulate the auditory nerve, optogenetic implants would use light to selectively activate the cells involved in sound signal transmission. Since hair cells are not naturally sensitive to light stimulation, a step involving the introduction of genes encoding light-sensitive proteins is necessary to express a specific membrane channel that makes them light-sensitive.
In cases of hearing disorders with a biological origin stemming from a dysfunction upstream of synaptic transmission, the activation of cochlear hair cells by light offers several advantages. This method would require only a small amount of light to target a wider range of intensities, while allowing the auditory system to adapt significantly to temporal variations in the signal.
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine recognizes this forward-looking approach
The work of Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth led, in particular, to the identification in the early 2000s of light-sensitive proteins called channelrhodopsins, which were discovered in a single-celled alga. The discovery of this protein channel made it possible to control neuronal activity using light. It is thanks to this membrane protein that a cell expressing it on its surface is sensitive to light.
